Suicide Prozac 02/06/2000 Utah 14 Year Old Boy Commits Suicide Summary:

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/AC/04/transcripts/4006T1.doc

            DR. RUDORFER:  Thank you.

             Our next speaker, Number 12, please.

                            Dawn Rider

             MS. RIDER:  My name is Dawn Rider and I am

   here to tell you my story, and I represent, as

   president of ASPIRE, more than 11,000 persons who

   are all named on the Eli Lilly and Prozac petition,

   which a copy has been given to the panel.

             We have been educated to believe that

   mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders are

   caused by chemical imbalances in the brain.  The

   fact is that this is only theory, and this theory

   is pushed on us as if it were the absolute truth.

             The reality is that the best of scientists

   do not completely understand the complex inner

   actions of the myriad chemicals in our brains.

   Those of us who elect to believe this theory and

   subject ourselves to treatment become guinea pigs

   in an ongoing experiment.

             I know this from personal experience.  I

   trusted our family doctor when he explained that

   depression is caused by a chemical imbalance.  We

   trusted him when he determined that Paxil was right

   for my husband, and Prozac for my son.

             We weren't educated enough at that time to

   ask him to provide us with the test results that

   proved which chemicals were being balanced.

             I am not going to go into details of what

   happened to our family.  I have given you all

   documentation, it's very painful.  Suffice it to

   say that my beautiful 14-year-old son is now dead,

   and when we discovered the problems with these

   drugs, we decided it would be better for my husband

   to suffer through depression than end up dead like

   our son, and we found out that he could not get off

   of Paxil.

             He went through over a year of hell before

   he was able to finally withdraw from the drug, and

   in the process it destroyed our marriage of over 20

   years.

             I say with no apology whatsoever that

   these SSRI drugs destroyed what was once a loving

   and vibrant family. Why do we believe that street

   drugs like heroin and LSD can lead to outcomes such

   as this, yet, we won't accept that legally

   prescribed drugs, working on the same

   neurochemicals, can result in horrific crimes

   against persons and property?

              Why do we accept that a drug like

   penicillin, beneficial as it is for some, can prove

   fatal for others?  We fail to accept that these

   drugs can have paradoxical effects.  These drugs

   are not safe for everyone.

             They should be labeled with the strongest

   of precautions and dispensed only by trained

   physicians who have time to adequately monitor the

   patient.  Most doctors do not have time for this

   level of care.

             Also, patients should be required to sign

   letters of informed consent.  Please carefully

   consider the documentation that I have left with

   you and look at the faces of those that are here

   today and the faces that out in the hall, those

   children who cannot speak for themselves because

   they are dead.  They are not merely anecdotal

   evidences.

             There is a preponderance of evidence that

   will be presented before you today.  Please

   consider it carefully and do the right thing.

             Thank you.

             DR. RUDORFER:  Thank you.